Can You Read JAPANESE With Only HIRAGANA? NO KANJI!?

[@metatronacademy]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3SyhGuVm9Slb80

[@narsplace]

草

[@nwcr_]

As someone who is in the very early stages of learning japanese, I gotta say that I dont want kanji to go away. I can actually read them way faster than kana lol, and even if I forget what the word is, I can still remember the meaning So yeah as long as you learn it in a sensible way (by learning words rather than kanji themselves) its actually really intuitive and practical

[@oldsport]

Agreed

[@nidhishshivashankar4885]

Third’ed

[@SolDizZo]

As a WaniKani'er, "Sensible" is a very funny word

[@TalesofDawnandDusk]

Here's the thing, written Japanese without hiragana is definitely doable, but once you get used to reading with kanji it's a massive pain because words become hard to distinguish. Now, you might argue "just put spaces in and you're fine," which, again, that's doable but since Japanese doesn't have many sounds to begin with it has an usually large number of homophones which makes it even harder to distinguish words. Plus, Japanese has evolved over the centuries with kanji in mind and the language is intricately tied to their use that are not immediately apparent to even long time students like myself. There are definitely times where I will come across a word I've never read before but because I understand the individual kanji I not only know how to sound it out but I also already know what it means. You lose that without the kanji. And finally, removing the kanji would remove so much of the artistry that makes Japanese special in my eyes. Calligraphy is a widely practiced art that's taught in public schools in Japan but if kanji were removed, I'd bet my entire life savings that that would kill the practice. Yes, learning kanji is really freaking hard, but there are reasons for why they've stuck around for centuries beyond just "because we're used to it and don't want to change." So, if you're struggling with learning how to read Japanese just remember that there good things about it, and as bad as you think it is just be glad they don't still write like they did in the Manyoshu and Kojiki days. Take my word for it as someone who reads very very old Japanese literature, that crap is not for the feint of heart and makes modern kanji look like child's play.

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

The problem for homophones is not the amount of sounds, but the fact that they have a very strictly limites syllable/mora structure. So the same issue as in Chinese.

[@flowerdolphin5648]

Oh my god, manyōgana are a nightmare. For now I am happy enough struggling to learn all the jōyō kanji haha.

[@andrelegeant88]

All of those benefits pale in comparison to the benefit of your people being able to achieve full literacy before their mid-to-late teens.

[@GustafUNL]

@@andrelegeant88 No it bleeping doesn't. Ease and simplicity are not a virtue, and difficulty is the fertile soil that sprouts trees of Beauty. When ease is valued more highly than Beauty, the land is ruled by Evil. Unfortunately that's already the case, but it doesn't need to be more so, it needs the opposite.

[@GustafUNL]

@@andrelegeant88 No it %(_&$ng doesn't. Ease and simplicity are not a virtue, and difficulty is the fertile soil that sprouts trees of Beauty. When ease is valued more highly than Beauty, the land is ruled by Evil. Unfortunately that's already the case, but it doesn't need to be more so, it needs the opposite.

[@servantofaeie1569]

In English we often read "lol" as it's own word rather than an acronym nowdays too. Or at least I do.

[@RogerRamos1993]

Yeah, hardly ever it means "laughing out loud". These days most people write lol when they want to say "funny". LMHO replaced lol for the exaggerated meaning. That's my impression, at least.

[@TalaySeedam]

Remember that in Classical Chinese, 好 (hào) means "to like," while the word for "good" is 善 (shàn). Look at these two pairs of words 好 hào like 惡 wù loathe 善 shàn good 惡 è bad

[@thethrashyone]

I've seen the original vid before and to be quite honest, most of the issues he highlights only hold water inasmuch as this hypothetical writing system were to retain a lack of spaces between words. If they _were_ to add spaces, then Hiragana-only Japanese would be much more legible and, honestly, wouldn't fare much differently at all from any other language where homographs are differentiated via context. To claim it "just wouldn't work" would be just as silly as claiming English doesn't work because "plane" can refer to either an aircraft or a flat surface. Additionally, I would see no reason whatsoever to continue representing the particle 'wa' as は rather than the more sensible わ.

[@nwcr_]

I'm sure these are very logical and could work perfectly, but honestly even though I'm a beginner at japanese, I'm already getting too used to wa being は and all the other quirks of japanese writing

[@tanizaki]

> if they were to add spaces Congratulations, you just discovered how Japanese children’s books are printed.

[@GustafUNL]

Yeah but it doesn't mean they should. The writing system is Beautiful in it's uniqueness. Also Japanese has some insane levels of homophone going on. Yes they do also have to deal with that in speech and use context, but it's still good to have it clearer in writing. There's a group of 48 Japanese words that are homophones of eachother. Though, after the first few they get increasingly less common.

[@skywalkerwifive2595]

true but i think at this point its just too late to do, its too culturally connected, and its really not that big of a deal in anyone's mind other than someone learning the language. For me kanji actually helps so much because it gives a way better way to learn vocab but idk

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

@@GustafUNL But in face-to-face speaking you have more context, and if needed you can add body language too. While in writing you only have the written thing as context.

[@KorovVanNoort]

Presumably a kanji-less Japanese would only need to start writing the は particle as わ ?

[@kohakuaiko]

Or modify the character in some way to make it stand out

[@violetskydiver7684]

When I first started learning Japanese I thought kanji would complicate things massively and hiragana and katakana would be all I'd ever need. When I came round to starting on Kanji, it was indeed a huge pain, but gradually the more I learn, the more I'm realising how important Kanji is in making Japanese text more easily readable, dispite it's complexity.

[@nazarnovitsky9868]

Thanks for this new video ! 😊

[@PandaHernandez23]

Real eyes realise real lies

[@kevboard]

reading out LOL is not only a thing in romance languages. I think it's a thing in most European languages. in german we also read it exactly like you said it in the video for example. pretty sure English is the odd one out here when it comes to europe at least. normal laughing in german is also just HAHAHAHA, or Hihihihihi if you want to laugh in a cuter way I guess.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

At some point you start recognizing where someone is from just how they laugh. Be it ajajajajaja Or honhonhon Or 55555 or wwwww Or 草

[@hightierplayers2454]

As someone that learned for years by going there and forcing it and went at least up through Joyou Kanji, it would make everything far easier. I would easily trade the quickness of reading the kanji for the ability to learn the language using practically the same approaches as others. By the way, I am Korean and we used to have Hanji, which is EXACTLY the same as kanji, but in Korean pronunciations. We did away with it after the Japanese occupation ended and haven't had to look back once.

[@norbertzillatron3456]

In German, we laugh "Ha ha ha". But I think "lol" is not really traditional English, but an abbreviation of "laughing out loud" coined in the days of usenet (before internet).

[@KigCaseyEN]

You can find plenty of word play in hiragana in the stories of Ikkyu-san (一休さん). The one about the bridge is the most well known: One day, Ikkyu-san came across a bridge with a sign written in hiragana “このはしわたるべからず" (Kono HASHI watarubekarazu) / “Do not cross ‘this hashi’ (bridge 橋)”. Despite seeing the sign, Ikkyu-san proceeded to cross the bridge, walking straight down the middle. When asked why he ignored the sign, he simply replied “I did exactly what the sign said. I didn’t cross ‘on the hashi’ (the sides 端)”.

[@DieLuftwaffel]

Kanji made me hate learning Japanese and give up learning it. My college professor emphasized Kanji right after hiragana and katakana (the two I liked), but they emphasized Kanji over even actually speaking and enjoying the actual language. It became all stress and no fun. Many Japanese people used to be illiterate, but not mute. Let me speak and make friends, then I can learn to read just like a child does.

[@michelefrau6072]

At least in italian, there are a lot of potential ambiguities There are homonyms Ancora, anchor (the first syllable is stressed), or again (the second syllable is stressed) Leggere, to read (first syllable stressed) or light, not heavy (second syllable stressed) There are polysemic words Riso, 🍚 or 😂 Piano, slowly, quietly, a plane surface, a flat/story of a building, strategy, 🎹 Or homophones Cieco, blind, and ceco, czech (cie and ce have the same pronunciation) The conjugation of the present tense of to have, some persons retained the etymological h (silent in italian) only to disambiguate then, ho (i have) vs o (or), hai (you have) vs ai (to the), ha (it has) vs a (to) , hanno (they have) vs anno (year)... "Chi sono?" Is it metaphysical question about yourself and the meaning of your existence, or are you just curious about a group of strangers?

[@oneukum]

In theory the spirits of the dead could be the wine cellar you have inherited.

[@kohakuaiko]

That would be a wonderfully confusing Manga or anime😊

[@Glassandcandy]

This is day 15 of commenting on every new video until he does Cajun French and Louisiana Creole.

[@maximilianisaaclee2936]

I think the problem is more of because Japanese doesn't utilitise spaces like most other languages do. East Asian and some South East Asian languages have developed this writing habit. Korean, however, has started utilizing spaces to separate words, that's why they're able to do away with Kanji. Maybe if Japanese also make some markings for to indicate the pitch accents, maybe using only the kanas would be more feasible. I, however, do think that these languages, Japanese and Chinese languages are still keeping the Hanzi is largely because of cultural reasons, very much like why I personally choose to write with the Traditional Chinese writing (I'm ethnic Chinese and a Mandarin speaker) even though I could've chosen to use the Simplified writing. I believe if they wanted to get rid of Hanzi, they will find a way. I would prefer Zhuyin since it retains the Chinese aesthetic but also a phonetic system but then again, it's not my place to say how people should write their language, or me my language.

[@napoleonfeanor]

Mao originally wanted to get rid of Chinese script. And yes, I think if they ever do so, they should make their own alphabet.

[@danielfreezer8469]

Koreans don't even know how to properly use spaces. It was forced into their writing, just as hanja removal was forced out and now vocab levels are dropping hard (they don't even teach hanja anymore).

[@Nasraniksatria]

I used to find Kanji as the hardest part of Japanese, but when I read Japanese Bible, it helps me distinguish objects from particles.

[@komeijisatori6612]

Off the topic, but somehow I find it funny that you said italian uses "degrees" for alcohol percentage in a drink, cause in ukrainian and russian we also use the word for "degrees" to for alcohol volume

[@mihainita5325]

Same in Romanian

[@oyoo3323]

22:56 so you like how Australians do it? I'm guessing you don't realise it, but while the pronunciation of the T is the same in "data" between Australians and Yankees, the vowel is totally different (both in quality and length), and the way you said it sounded a lot closer to Australians here.

[@oyoo3323]

To be clear: RP: /ˈdeɪtə/ Aus: /ˈdɑːɾə/ US: /ˈdæɾə/ Also worth noting that in the case of RP, the posh actually say /ˈdɑːtə/, so closest to the Australians, but with the T pronounced as its spelt.

[@marschmallough9874]

Katakana can represent particles and hiragana can represent nouns/verbs/adjectives and vice versa. I'm sure you can add common kanji to make it even clearer (pronouns, mum, dad, family etc).

[@napoleonfeanor]

They should just do what they do with children's media (have the kana above the kanji)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

12:39 And in thai you can laugh with 55555, because 5 is pronounced "ha" German btw just does the same as english "hahaha"

[@danial-ie6jp]

in arabic and persian(farsi) we both use هههههههههههه (hhhhhh) but in persian we have خخخخخخخ too ((khkhkhkhkhkh) sounds like j in spanish)

[@Cavouku]

I can't speak much to Japanese, but I know in English we have words that are spelled the same and only differentiated by the stress accent: "content" and "present" are two that immediately come to mind. But they're never really presented* without context for the interlocutor to figure out on their own. Is Japanese significantly different in that respect? There's also "can", which necessarily is spelled and pronounced the same for the verb "to be able to" and the noun "cylindrical metal container".

[@azarishiba2559]

The problem with Japanese phonetics is that it has so few sounds compared with many other languages, that the presence of homophones is HUGE. The word こうしょう can mean up to 50 different things, and kanji do help a lot. Even with pitch accent, there are still words that are pronounce the same.

[@cbasaz]

Japanese without Kanji is dad joke paradise

[@zackleonard8559]

Korean, I think, used to be written in a somewhat similar way to Japanese with Chinese characters called "hanja" supplemented with Hangeul. After world war 2, they wanted to go back to a purely Korean language so they almost completely ditched hanja and started the switch entirely to Hangeul. The big reason this works is they use spaces in their writing, somewhat like Western Languages do. I think spaces would help A LOT in the readability of pure hiragana. Romaji is already pretty readable as is, so I think just replacing that with hiragana but keeping the spaces wouldn't be too hard.

[@jaredt2590]

No, because some things are comprised of the same sounds but have completely different meaning. If you’re talking to a person they can let you know what they mean but written words need additional clarification.

[@ahmedel-barbary336]

13:11 in Arabic we spam هه which is the equivalent of H so ههههههههههه is hhhhhhhhhhh because ajads doesn't write short vowel Tl;dr in Arabic it's ههههههههه or hhhhhh😅

[@blueredbrick]

The degrees with alcohol is interesting. I've seen that on very old bottles here in NL. And in the US it seems to be 'proof' twice the percentage?

[@Pdor_figlio_di_Kmer]

The last full-page overcomplicated compound kanji looks to me like a seal against evil spirits like seen in manga and movies. 😁

[@kovaxim]

Has Metatron seen Dogen's videos? I think he'd have a blast with any of the most popular ones or any that involve coffee.

[@kernelscout3077]

i remember watching this video a long time ago. i actually bought a pack of the pen he's using lol

[@Kldin-c2h]

Hey metatron i just wanted to let you know that age of empires 2 added the romans in a dlc if you want to review the latin

[@thejuiceweasel]

Reading Japanese without kanji is basically how Korean hangeul works, honestly, it can be tricky to remember words if the syllables don't convey explicit meaning. 시체 means corpse, and on its own, you can't really tell, but if you have the Japanese 死体 for reference, you know that 시 means death and 체 means body.

[@danielfreezer8469]

Which is why I would love for Korean to return to mixed script. There are too many 정s, just show me the hanja!

[@MyshelafromTanelorn]

I think the context bit happens in most languages right? We always have a word with different meanings, for example in spanish banco could mean bank or bench, and im pretty sure you dont withdraw money from a bench 😂

[@azarishiba2559]

Yes, but sometimes even simple context can not be sufficient. If I say "Me gusta ese banco", and it happens that a bench is next to a bank, ¿which do I like? And even let's say I did not point it properly with my hand. So, something aditional will be needed, in this case, a more long sentence in Spanish: "Me gusta ese banco, son muy eficientes cuando uno hace un trámite" (bank), "Me gusta ese banco, es muy cómodo para sentarse" (bench). In Japanese things like this can happen, and saying with what kanji is written do help: くもがすきだ。 So, ¿do I like spiders or clouds? Because both even have the same pitch accent. But, I can say 雲が好きだ。いや、蜘蛛じゃなくて、「雲海」の「うん」と読む漢字の「くも」が好きだ。 This example is something of a stretch, because you could say 雲が好きだ。いや、動物の蜘蛛じゃなくて、曇りの雲だ。, but with words more difficult to explain, it's actually faster to say in what kanji is written. I have used that method when I'm not sure which word does someone said, asking for the kanji (since my mind is quite visual, rather than auditive).

[@flowerdolphin5648]

13:40 yes. I can underline that. I am studying 日本学 at university and the way my teacher writes is just so sloppy 😂 like, yesterday she wrote a comment on my homework and the only reason why I knew she wrote 学年 was from context, because her 年 is completely, and I mean completely, unrecognizable 😂😂😂 The updated kanji list is now at 2137 I believe.

[@DaveLopez575]

My Japanese writing is kindergarten level 😂 ははは🤣　🦷🦷🦷 I like Kanji to a certain degree. Like you are saying, Kanji differentiate words fast. Though what I think can make it annoying is the kunyomi and onyomi but thank goodness furigana is helpful. I need to get back on the Japanese language pony.

[@matzekatze7500]

Despite all the difficulties Kanji are awesome and perfectly fit the Japanese language! Japanese in full Romaji is awful to read. Also I think you actually messed up the pitch with 日曜日. It should be niCHIYOubi if I'm right.

[@euchale]

I think the reason for hate of Kanji is how most people seem to learn japanese. They learn Hiragana and Katakana and then quite a bit of vocab and only then move on to Kanji. Then for the Kanji you do not only learn their meaning and parts, but also their spelling, or even worse what their radical is. I am also a bit ambivalent when it comes to learning the Kanji by using the N5,4,3.. system. I found it MUCH easier to just learn the parts and any Kanji of just a single part and approach it as "yes there are 2000 Kanjis, but you learn them one by one" instead of learning the most common ones first.

[@gregorde]

Reading without kanji is physically painful.

[@AleMazza100]

I think it's interesting to look at what Koreans did with "Hangul". I am not expert, but as far as I understand, like Japanese, Korean was written with chinese writing (they are called "Hanja" ("한자", "漢字")), but they also developped a really ingenious writing system. Now they basically don't use Kanji anymore, even if they still study them... They also have problems with homophones and sino-korean vocabulary: in many cases (especially in legal documents they add the Hanja, if they need to clarify the meaning of a word.

[@danielfreezer8469]

@@AleMazza100 they don't still study them, that's the problem

[@Mantelgame]

Good to see I'm not the only one who looks at all the suggested videos while watching a video 🤣

[@ostsan8598]

26:57 shikanokonokonokokoshitantan

[@BrandonBoardman]

10:50 I don't know much Japanese but I'm sure "shōdō" has two long vowels and you pronounced the pitch accent correctly.

[@azarishiba2559]

Nope, it only has one long vowel: "shodō".

[@cyrielwollring4622]

the i in applicable is short like in ´pin´

[@LoLFilmStudios]

3:25 kata tataki* Your Japanese is great though!

[@doomood]

As a native french speaker, I have no problem understanding that multiple word can sound the same and understand with context hahaha

[@Voice_of_Rambol]

I give you example in Polish. Morze = Sea, Może = Maybe, sound the same different writing, context is key.

[@jayc1139]

I wonder if Japanese had developed a less restrictive phonotactical system, it'd have both...less homophones, and a reduced used of Kanji. If Kanji is used for context in the written form to clarify the meaning, would a higher rate of consonant clusters and words ending in hard stops like /p/, /g/, /d/, etc... help reduce the amount of Kanji. I've noticed French and English have both dropped a lot of phonemes from words over time, even if they're still in the words, and it's able to be spoken faster, and the information density is higher.

[@azarishiba2559]

The information density of English is high precisely of its quite complex phonology, but I think at average is not spoken faster than languages with a reduced phonetic system and a high probability of homophones, which it's the case of Japanese and my native Spanish: we can speak fast because we need to compensate our low information density by saying sentences fast, and it's doable because if our phonetic system are more simple, then it's easier to grasp sounds. With language with more complex phonetics, saying words faster, although doable, it becomes harder to understand, especially for non-natives and even more for those of simple phonetic languages, because we need to differentiate from similar sounds, or sounds that are heard for us as the same. Sorry for my strange English, not my strong point.

[@Ciprian-IonutPanait]

you can romanji things , use spaces and get rid of most homophones by adding letters here and there or solve the confusion between certain sounds like l and r.

[@gregorde]

R and L are the exact same in Japanese. The sound is actually in between.

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Now if english would start doing the same. I mean, don't confuse lead and lead. One rhymes with beat and the other with bread.

[@Ciprian-IonutPanait]

@@gregorde that is my point. There are not the only sounds that get this treatment. Having Japanesse differentiate between them would make getting rid of homophones easier

[@gregorde]

@Ciprian-IonutPanait no, Japanese literally does not have a true R or L sound. Monolingual native speakers literally cannot pronounce those sound (like say, many Americans can’t do or distinguish a rolled and non-rolled R that many romance languages have). All homophones with what in English we’d think of as R or L sounds are pronounced exactly the same in Japanese.

[@Ciprian-IonutPanait]

@@gregorde 🤦‍♂I mean let's say you have two homophones using LR . You get one to use true L and the other true R and problem solved

[@GigaDavy91]

Like imagine if your language uses the same sets of letters for the words "anchor" and "again", would be completely incomprehensible 👀

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Having looked into different readings, I can say, no without kanji it would add a lot of confusion to the language. Too many homonyms and homophones. On the other hand, that also opens up a lot of opportunities for wordplay and puns. Chinese would have the same issue. A good example is the poem of the lion-eating poet in the stone den. And you just gave me a new pun, something about the paper-haired god...

[@GustafUNL]

Short answer: No. Kanji is necessary.

[@ranani20]

13:10 in arabic you spam h's so hhhhhhh (هههههه)

[@LifeofKusa]

台灣也有很多簡化或異體字，但大多數只會用於手寫

[@francegamble1]

This is like the "shi" poem in Mandarin I found for my children to hear. 😂 Yes, we could use pinyin... but it would be so confusing. More confusing than Mandarin already can be. 😂

[@sweetiespoon5150]

The ma ma ma ma thing reminds me of the English homophone phrase: Our ore or our oar.

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

That english phrase only works in some very specific dialects from Canada.

[@mihainita5325]

If it's pronounced "hahawa", why not write it that way? ははわ? I would imagine that if kanjis would be removed then it would be a full spelling reform. And the smart decision would be to bring the spelling closer to pronunciation, the way Italian and many other languages do

[@servantofaeie1569]

Personally I prefer the old Kana orthogtaphy which is even more etymological like "eu" and "efu" sounding like "yoo"

[@AleMazza100]

庭には鶏が二羽いる

[@Camilo-767]

日本語の漢字ってマジで簡単すぎて、書いてると𱁬みたいに！

[@fuwariii]

ははははながだいすき My mother likes noses

[@napoleonfeanor]

The poem is just about shi and an I think uses all variants. PS: Keanu is a great person but his acting range isn't amazing

[@crbgo9854]

Your curser is so small I can't see it

[@fattiger6957]

Though my Japanese learning goes in fits and starts, I do have a little understanding how weird kanji is. Is it true that you can't be sure of how to read a person's name without asking them to confirm? I saw an NHK video where they were talking about new government regulations on naming babies. One example was someone wanted to give their baby the kanji that would normally be read as きし (kishi) which means warrior. But they wanted it to be pronounced as ないと (naito) like knight, I guess. So if you just see a person's name in kanji, you have to ask them how to say it?

[@tanizaki]

Sometimes you have to ask but many times it is obvious. No one wonders how to pronounce 花子 or 裕介, for example. And of course, many people have names written in hiragana or katakana.

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

@@tanizaki In short: the more commonly used a name is the less likely to be unreadable.

[@tanizaki]

@ Perhaps. There are certainly common names like 愛 and 祥子 that have multiple readings. I’m not aware of any sort of survey, though. In the end, just like in English, sometimes you just have to ask. For example, if someone’s name is Steven or Stephen. Whenever one fills out their name on a form, there is always space to write the reading of one’s name.

[@Ciprian-IonutPanait]

14:15 5000 minimum

[@RanmaruRei]

Kanji is beautiful, but… As a Russian I could read since 5. Learning 33 letters is enough to read any text in Russian. With Kanji, it's impossible.

[@Kurt20051YT]

I've been learning Japanese for a year and a half now, I can't memorize all of them lol. Hiragana and katakana are hard enough to memorize

[@Minlawc]

Japanese works fine without kanji. You could even creatively use katakana and you wouldn't need spaces. ハハはハナがすき カタたたき - I agree, this isn't needed. Maybe a rule that you write a word using katakana when a particle follows?

[@kohakuaiko]

When you click to translate it makes the first one "haha, I like Hana."

[@valawaters103]

Wouldn't it make more sense to skip katakana? If it is used only for foreign words wouldn't it be easier to just write them in hiragana instead? Or at the very least, to study kanji before katakana?

[@75yado]

Well they can get rid of kanji of course but it would need one more step, space between words

[@Nom_AnorVSJedi]

WHY?? Why would you not use kanji? It’s the only thing that adds any class and real culture to Japanese writing. Otherwise it would be like any other soulless, utilitarian and robotic alphabetic writing system of programming language.

[@tanizaki]

Calm down.

[@GustafUNL]

I think it's going way too far to say that every purely phonetic writing system is soulless and robotic. That's certainly not the case. But the variation between languages is good and it's nice to have symbolic writing systems too. Japanese is cool because it combines both symbolic and phonetic scripts in it's writing system.

[@Nom_AnorVSJedi]

@@tanizakifun fact: the Borg utilize an alphabetic written language on their Cube ships.

[@Nom_AnorVSJedi]

@@GustafUNLkanji is the only thing that will save us from an AI takeover.

[@tovarishchfeixiao]

@@GustafUNL I think he meant that in alphabets there are nearly no variation at all, while in Japanese/Chinese writing there is a lot.

[@Ciprian-IonutPanait]

9:50 no. is a way to complicate the lives of natives and non natives for no reason. Also Japan is demografically dyong so is mute anyway

[@jeungbou]

In languages with the latin based alphabet we in invented lowercase letters and spaces between the words, so we could get rid of Kanjis.

[@GustafUNL]

mmm, no. That's not what happened at all.

[@joshadams8761]

Latin originally did not have spaces or minuscule letters.

[@rizzwan-42069]

Latin never used kanji i believe?

[@GustafUNL]

@@rizzwan-42069 Of course it didn't. "Kanji" is the Japanese term for Chinese borrowed characters. Latin was certainly never using Chinese borrowed characters, nor did it ever have a symbolic or pictogram type writing system at all. The first writing system it got was a phonetic alphabet.

[@blondie8524]

it's already been done. check hangeul. they used to use hanja but now they don't. but like you said context is king.

[@danielfreezer8469]

And now korean vocab levels are dropping

[@bano363]

Source?

[@danielfreezer8469]

@@bano363 not in english. a korean data team gleaned it from teachers nationwide

[@bano363]

@@danielfreezer8469 yeah so link it? I want to know what 'vocab' it's in relation to, cos if it's just in reference to hanja then no shit

[@danielfreezer8469]

@@bano363 youtube doesnt let you post links. If you speak korean you should be able to find it easily. And it's not hanja but hanja derived vocab, i.e., 60% of the language.

[@EugeniusNaumenco]

i wish they removed katakana, it seems so useless

[@kohakuaiko]

🤷🏼‍♀️ Why not, you appear to feel the same way about capitals

[@EugeniusNaumenco]

@@kohakuaiko u got me